Despite some valiant efforts, Will has yet to convince Greg to fire me, and I have yet to convince Will to watch Lady Bird. So Will’s stubborn boycott continues and I’m still here to describe all the ways the Kings continue to break my heart. After a very Kangz-esque performance on Saturday night in Atlanta, the Kings traveled to Charlotte looking to bounce back (or continue the tank?) against the Hornets. Let’s see how they did:
Quick Stats
Outcome: Kings lose, 122-116
Sacramento Kings: 116 PTS, 55.8% FG, 29.0% 3 PT, 64.7% FT, 28 AST, 10 TO
Charlotte Hornets: 122 PTS, 47.9% FG, 40.0% 3 PT, 80.0% FT, 30 AST, 8 TO
The return of Gordon Hayward, Scary Terry’s late-game frights, and the extreme TV sitcom dad energy of Cody Zeller all proved to be too much for the Kings tonight. The Kings had a 15-point lead in the third quarter, but were once again stung by the Hornets in the final stretch of the game. A 5-point Kings’ lead with four minutes to go ultimately resulted in a 6-point loss that will just be added to the long reel of my nightmares.
The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly
The Good:
- High Post Action: Early on, the Kings found the weakness in Charlotte’s defense in the high post area and milked it like a fat cow. We first saw this in Harrison Barnes working his way into the open area to turn and face the basket for a wide open slam. Richaun Holmes also found his favorite push shot a handful of times from this same area. After draining a few, the defense stepped out on him which allowed for some beautiful high-low action between him and Marvin Bagley III. Richaun is an underrated passer and, especially from that area, this makes it easier for Bagley to float in the dunker zone for easy buckets.
- High Effort Scrambles: There are a multitude of layers to what makes Kings defense so awful – sometimes it’s lack of knowledge, sometimes it’s lack of communication, sometimes it’s just pure lack of effort, and oftentimes it’s all of the above. While they still found themselves in scrambles where two guys were caught running at the ball, the Kings were able to mask some of these poor rotations with their effort. Hard closeouts, sprinting to provide help coverage, and active rebounding all saved the Kings from the usual sequence of 20 seconds of scrambling for an eventual easy basket. In one instance in the first quarter, their high effort scrambling even forced the Hornets into a 24-second shot clock violation. I know it’s not healthy, but I can’t help but wonder what this team could be if they played with that level of effort consistently.
- Block Party: The Kings had six blocks for the night, with Richaun Holmes hosting the block party with four rejections. This indicates more active and accurate help side defense, something the Kings have been striving to improve on.
The Bad:
- Rookie Battle: I just remembered another important thing to know about me: I LOVE Tyrese Haliburton. But in this much anticipated battle between the two leading candidates for Rookie of the Year, I must concede this game to LaMelo Ball, who ended with 16 points and four assists. Tyrese had just four points and three assists, as he is still shaking off some rust after coming off of a four-game rest from a calf injury, followed by the week-long All-Star break. After a slow start tonight, his frustration was clear and confidence rattled. He seemed hesitant through the remainder of the game, and we missed his usual playmaking and confident presence. This was a tough test for our rookie, but it’s just one battle in a long war. I still believe in Tyrese’s candidacy for ROY. LaMelo makes the pass that ends up on SportsCenter, but Tyrese is the one to deflect those passes from even making it to their destination. LaMelo twists his way to the basket for the flashy layup, but Tyrese nails the clutch corner pocket 3-pointer to dig his team out of a scoring drought. And to just throw out some numbers, Tyrese Haliburton ranks 17th in the LEAGUE in assist to turnover ratio (3.4), while LaMelo Ball is ranked at 75th (2.2). Just saying.
The Ugly:
- 4th Quarter Execution: My personal version of hell is watching the last three minutes of a close Kings game. For what feels like the millionth time, we once again saw the Kings fail to close out a game. As crunch time approached, the Kings tried desperately to hold on to their lead by slowing the game down. But this has never worked in their favor and tonight was no exception. The Kings become too one-dimensional (aka give De’Aaron Fox the ball and watch) in a slowed down setting and ultimately lose games because of it. We want the ball in De’Aaron’s hands, but we can’t afford to allow the entire defense to focus on him while everyone else stands perfectly still around the perimeter ball watching. The Hornets were able to get big stops and speed the ball down to their offensive end to fight their way back and bury the Kings once again. Personally, I’m tired of this film, can we put something else on?
The King of Kings
Tonight’s crown goes to Richaun Holmes for his huge performance on both ends of the floor. As Marvin Bagley III left midway through the game with a hand injury, Richaun stepped up to carry the load. Most impressive to me was his defensive discipline, as he got some big stops on Gordon Hayward down the stretch. Ending with 17 points, 15 rebounds, and four blocks, Richaun is tonight’s King of Kings.
Up Next
Wednesday, March 17th @ Washington Wizards – 4:00 P.M. (PT)
Tank on!
Monte:
Blow.
This.
Shit.
Up.
NOW.
To be fair the Kings seem to be doing a fairly good job of blowing up themselves already
Fairly good is not good enough.
The fact that we are this bad while actually trying and playing vets tells you all you need to know.
I know I’m on this kick, but if Sac doesn’t blow it up this year we are fucked for another 5-10 years, or whenever Vivek sells.
What does this even mean?
fox/Hali are going nowhere
buddy can’t be dealt as he’s negative now
Beli/Bagley have been actively shopped
they may want to keep Holmes
the only question is Barnes and we don’t know the offers on the table or the gamesmanship going on. If there was a good deal on the table I agree that McNair hasn’t handled it correctly
I think most non kings fans think buddy can be dealt
Go to RealGM trades and transactions board, it will be near unanimous he’s negative
You know those aren’t really “Real GMs,” right?
The kings said themselves that the trade market for him was, non existent, last summer before his crap year this year through Amick when not matching Bogdan
only myopic fans believe buddy’s contract can be moved now
Agreed. Blow it up means trade everybody but only Marvin was a viable trade candidate before this injury. Now teams are going to be more reluctant to take a chance on him.
The parties that need to go, obviously are:
> the coach
> CoJoSlo
> Bjelica
And less obviously but probable to likely need to go:
>Marvin
I exclude Barnes and Buddy because HB is more valuable than anything we could get back, unless a team gets desperate and overpays, and Buddy is less valuable than anything worth acquiring for him.
These hypothetical changes would NOT constitute “blowing it up” but it would dramatically alter the dynamics of your roster. Our offense sets ran smooter w/o Marvin in the 2nd half w Ty-Buddy-Fox-Barnes-Holmes. This group can wreak havoc if the coach is willing to give them a fair chance to get comfortable.
If and when we see this, the new synergy with the addition of Ty and absence of Marvin, it will further substantiate it is probably time to move on from Bagley.
The reason I do not say like other fans it is DEFINTIELY time to get rid of Bagley is because 15 pounds of muscle could enable to make and finish plays he is unable to make. This is what happened with Fox from Year 1 to Year 3/4. His strength gains coincided with the jump in production and star power.
The difference between Fox and Bagley is at this stage Fox was showing more glipses of star power than Marvin. Marvin is not showing enough star potential even at his current strength disadvantage. He does not give us enough optimism with takeover ability, one on one moves, scoring touch, or nuance of the game.
Everything with Marvin is straight-line drives, poor closeouts, slow recognition of the open man. Even when Marvin has a statistically good game, it does not seem to impact the outcome.
Maybe there is a 30-40% chance he ever turns into a high quality starter, at PF not C, a non-versatile frontline player.
I can think of better ways to invest time and resources than this, namely, Jonathon Kuminga or Evan Mobley.
We can only dream.
Next level tanking right now. I love it. Also, I feel bad for Marvin. I highly doubt he ever amounts to anything in Sacramento but to break his hand on such an innocuous play just sucks.
He’s still young yes, but he can’t be trusted right now to play a full season without significant gaps of developmental opportunities lost to injury.
Time to cut bait on Vlade’s guy this offseason Monte. The core is gonna be Fox, Hali, and 2021 draft pick regardless.
Agreed 1,000 percent.
Edited this for you.
Marvin just sucks
I’ve been pretty clear since the second he was drafted I thought he’d be a bust. That said, I feel bad that the dude broke his hand because he seems to work hard and I don’t wish him ill.
My thoughts too.
They aren’t tanking, their best players just aren’t that good.
The team has quit on the coach
the question of how good they are will be answered when the team has a coach it respects
as a fox detractor I’ve been impressed by his offensive improvement that he’s been doing while largely uninspired, actually. Hopefully a tough, responsive coach brings out that 7-1 streak Fox constantly
The team quit on the coach? These are the type of comments….. well let’s just say instead the team just isn’t good enough. Walton tried what he could playing his best five all the way down the stretch. Nobody quit. There’s absolutely nothing on the bench, hell he could have put Otis in, he has an RPM of 0 going all the way back to his preschool days. That’s better than anyone on the Kings bench.
The team on paper is better than what they are displaying
Walton is a bottom 2 coach
Otis was praising senile George Karl when the team wasn’t playing for him as well
That’s a very simplistic analysis, which is actually more than I expected from you.
Multiple nba and college coaches could have this team winning more games than they are. Your constant defense of walton is baffling.
I just happen to know enough that there are much higher priorities than Walton. It’s almost impossible to measure empirically how much an NBA coach matters or better yet measuring the marginal difference between one coach and another. I do know this, nobody wins with this roster and especially with this bench. Actually the starting 5 along with Haliburton are performing fairly well statistically but the bench is atrocious. On the positive side, I think this team is one lucky draft pick and a couple of realistic but smart moves away from being playoff viable.
Just a bit of advice – when you finally get your GM interview (lulz), don’t mention your weird Walton obsession.
Not that anyone that matters is listening to anyone on this site, but I’m on record that I’d like to see Mark Few or Nancy Lieberman. Having said that, I know enough that if the roster doesn’t improve significantly it won’t matter who’s coaching the team. To say however the team quit on Walton after last nights game is absurd. Unless you got distracted working on your left hand, even you could observe that is a ridiculous statement.
You should target the people who are making that statement. I don’t think they’ve quit on him, I think he’s just a terrible coach.
I realize that, I’m setting the record straight on all these ridiculous comments about Walton. It’s not to be interpreted that I’m all in with him, I just think he’s down the list on a whole bunch of priorities. This last time I defended him is when this site when bat crap crazy when he fouled Steven Adams. It wasn’t my opinion but a statistical fact it was the correct decision but many on this site can’t be rational about him.
In the end, it’s all going to amount to about the same thing.
Unfortunately, history’s best tank commander was a Nazi that died in ’45. May he and his name rest in a puddle of piss.
That being said, Luke and Monte have a pretty low bar to beat.
unfortunately??
Yes. They’ll never be the best at tanking. I apologize for making you read further into that.
Haven’t liked Hali’s play post injury.. is something lingering?
I hope Barnes steps up his intensity from these past two towards the trade deadline
I absolutely believe Haliburton’s injury is a problem. You can see he’s not really punching off/exploding. Never gets into paint. Short on shots. Hesitant. Unfortunately, that’s what calf injuries do to a player. Hoping he can get 100 healthy but it looks to me like he’s playing at 75/80%. Could linger.
Great recap! And I’ve been advocating for waaaay more Haliburton running the show. Should be 50/59, especially in forth.
I’m so confident in this teams ability to tank now. Our “best players” playing 35-40 min a night and still taking the L.
Hopefully the TWolves become competent enough to aid in that down the stretch.
TO CADE AND BEYOND!
The Calf of Doom got Haliburton.
He sure is Moovin.
Buddy is the least trustworthy player in crunch time on the team. 6:19 mark in the 4th Buddy goes one on one on a big possession and dribbles the ball off of his foot. 0:50 to go in the 4th yet again another huge possession Buddy takes the inbound pass fakes a handoff to Fox and makes a truly horrible decision to shoot a highly contested 3 point shot with 21 seconds still on the shot clock. This type of thing seems to happen every game with Buddy. I am not saying he is the only reason the Kings are bad but at this point, I think he is the one driving the tank.
If Luke has a fourth quarter plan, I imagine it looks something like this…
Or is it Vivek’s hands on approach w the Kings.
As long as those hands eventually form Shakas it’s cool.
I feel bad for that kid actually, that was a lot of work.
I don’t think Walton has built up this much
4th quarter , no ..
I would like for them to blow up the team. I’m just so tired of this team’s vibes at this point. Trade Barnes, Bagley, CoJo and Bjelly. Fire Walton, and make Rico Hines the interim coach for the remainder of the season.
https://images.app.goo.gl/EEF2kYGoY7vPCt9z7
That’s how it looks, but then you hear from the propagandists around the team that these guys love playing together and love playing for Walton.
So this could theoretically be much, much worse.
I think that’s probably a bit of exaggeration. To my recollection, the only thing we’ve heard is that Walton hasn’t lost the locker room. Or to put it another way, the guys that matter long-term haven’t made any noise about Walton. I think it’s pretty clear Bjelly and Bagley absolutely want out. I’d imagine Barnes and Joseph would prefer to get traded to a contender, but are professional enough to not go about it the wrong way.
Replacing Walton with Hines is a good way to pivot from winning to development without locking themselves into anything past this season.
What the fans don’t understand…
I didn’t think it was possible, but…
Don’t trade Holmes. His effort leaps off the video and box score.
If you don’t trade him you run the risk of him leaving this shit show for nothing this summer.
IMO, a smart GM maximizes on his value and trades him to a contender who will hopefully overpay in hopes of a title.
True… but Monte has already let one asset walk for nothing, so let’s not discount that possibility.
I’d rather watch Holmes bring energy and play alongside our young guys, trying to develop them. Someone will be getting MBIII’s minutes- it’s time to move beyond Walton’s rotations and really see what our young prospects can do.
Maybe rather than shipping out players who show up for the franchise, you invest in and value them. Holmes has been a bright spot in this season; I’d ship out other expiring assets before him.
Wait, you are in favor of potentially letting Holmes walk for nothing just as long as he brings energy for the next 30 games?
You realize he is a UFA and can make more money elsewhere than what the Kings can pay, right? What makes you think he returns next year?
Yeah, I’d rather watch a player I like for the remainder of his contract than collect yet another 2nd round pick (only about half-kidding). I’m not Holmes’s agent, so I’m not really invested in what he makes next year on the open market. And as you said, he’ll probably be valued higher than the Kings can pay in the off-season, so odds of returning are low.
I just want to watch what I like, and Holmes fills a void that WCS and MBIII made me think would never happen. I’m not ready for him to go!
I’m down for getting something for him on the market, then re-signing him to a reasonable deal in the off-season.
Totally! I think the Kings would be doing him a favor by trading him to a contender. He gets playoff money and could potentially increase his value in free agency. They could even let him know they have full interest in re-signing him here long term. It’s a business, and I’d hope he’d understand that.
He didn’t let Bogi walk for nothing…he let him walk for the asset of not paying him 72 million for 4 years. We have no idea what Monte would have done at last years deadline with Bogi when it would have been easiest to get a return back for him.
Kings are screwed as it is…how much worse would it be if Bogi was playing like he is now and on the hook for 72 million?
Oh, worse, agreed.
The point i was trying to make is that Monte has demonstrated the capacity to not feel pressured into rash action, just because he might “have had a better deal two days ago”.
Gotcha, very true
Bogi has played like 250 minutes this season and just recently returned from a lengthy injury. I’m not putting too much weight into what we’ve seen to this point.
Well he was often injured and that likely went into the decision.
Right now, even you can’t argue it was a bad decision to not match
It’s looking like the right decision…based on 250 minutes and butterfly wings.
I’d say it is looking like the right decision because of Haliburton, not anything on the other side of the equation.
Bogi is a known commodity, and I say that agreeing that the 250 minutes are irrelevant to the analysis.
Fair…but even if Bogi produced like last year I wouldn’t be breaking down the door to sign him to that contract…doubly so since they drafted Hali a couple days before if I remember the timing.
LOL this is an awful team.
Thank you for putting the winning team’s score first.
The final 120 seconds of this game is the kind of thing that gets coaches fired by normal franchises sitting around the bottom 5 of the league a week before the deadline.
What’s the game plan here, Monte?
Monte: Uh, trade Bogey to Milwaukee? Sign Frank Kaminsky? Would Glenn Robinson help?
The game plan is that Monte agreed to keep Walton no matter what, and here we are. They need to move off everyone who has value, is dead weight or is over 25. So almost everyone.
I think if you read between the lines on the financial situation with this team, there’s zero chance Walton gets fired this season. I just hope he gets fired in the off season because after listening to Jerry and James on the last pod, I’m worried he’s going to be here into next year as well.
Ugh, that would be a huge turn off.
I agree. When Jerry said he knew for a fact that the financial fallout from the pandemic was a lot worse than anyone understood, I got really nervous.
I still think McNair could offset the cost of Walton’s salary pretty easily. It’s basically the cost of trading a couple second round picks, and not signing a guy with the biannual exception. Shit, trading Barnes for the TPE alone would save them 30ish game checks on a $22 million annual deal. That saving is pretty close to Walton’s annual salary, depending on who they take back from the Celtics.
If Walton is still the coach next season, I will be done with the Kings for as long as Vivek is involved with the team in any way.
I actually enjoyed that game quite a bit.
I didn’t think it was really gonna be possible to watch the team play fairly decent ball for 45 minutes and still come away without the win; the best of both worlds.
I agree…entertaining, they weren’t god awful and ends with a loss. If you don’t like that, you don’t like Kangz basketball.
Despite Walton, Buddy and Co.’s best efforts to secure the loss, we still needed the ref’s help with that over and back call.
Thank you, thank you, thank you!
I think it’s disrespectful to use an injury like that to label someone “injury prone”. I broke four fingers as a kid and three of them were running into other players. I just don’t think this is anything spectacular.
Bagley’s trade value right now is just someone you toss in, I don’t think this injury impacts anything. Just toss him in.
The Kings are now four wins away from the bottom three teams.
Meanwhile, the team that openly tanked for three years is one win away from the best record in the league.
But let’s get good players in here. Better turn this road trip around. Fire the coach. Shake up the rotations.
SMFH
Monte needs to make this into a G League team ASAP but I’m not holding my breath. This franchise is like a game that’s on in the background that nobody is really paying much attention to.
Tend to agree that the injury probably doesn’t greatly change value. We can debate what that is, but a small bone break isn’t going to scare teams off that may have been interested. Question is how many are there actually and are they offering anything that’s worth a deal…
The problem with Bagley is its tough to convince a team to take a $12M throw-in
The NBA is about talent. I’m not defending Walton but I have to believe that the combination of Walton, Gentry and Kalamian know how to draw up an offensive and defensive game plan and to have the team prepared. No coach, top notch or otherwise can consistently win with the current roster, they just isn’t enough talent, especially coming off the bench.
This is a “why not both” situation. They had that game in hand last night, and just threw up on themselves at the end. The coaching stinks as well.
It was a pretty bad collapse last night. I especially saw in in Fox’s face and gestures after the game. He was quite upset.
I would be pretty upset, too, if I missed a critical free throw and then got rejected by the the rim at a critical moment. That’s not max contract style play.
Missed free throws, missed threes, botched the layup (where was the right hand?). Not a great sequence for the “future All-Star”.
Good discussion. Disagree with “blow it up.” The Kings will suck for the next five years as we wait to see whether the 2021 #4 and #18 picks can really learn to play basketball. Haven’t we been there before? The Kings have a credible young but getting established starting line up. They need to get another player in the draft, have one or two of their second rounders turn into NBA players, sign a decent free agent or two, including a veteran mentor who can still play (like Chris Paul on the Suns). Do they need a new coach? Let’s just say that I believe that there are people on earth, who coach the game of basketball, who could get some winning results with the team mentioned above.
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